Did India Civilize Europe?, author-publisher, Rs 690, 334 pp

Here is a book which shows through reproduction ofexcerpts from treatises by various scholars andhistorians that India, along with China, was at onestage the most civilised nation. He quotes W. Brennand to justify his statement: "No nation in existence canafford to compare to latter [India] in many tenets ofscience, with its earliest theories and cosmography,without a smile at the expense of ancestors, but the Hindus, in this view, may, with not a littlejustifiable pride, point to their science ofastronomy, arithmetic, algebra, geometry and even oftrignometry, as containing within them evidence of atraditional civilisation compared formally with that of any other nation in the world."

Brennand had said in his book Hindu Astronomy thatChinese religion resembled that of the Indian Vedasand like the Hindus, they had the same days of theweek. The moon and five planets were looked upon as the appointed rulers in successive order at par withtheir respective names. They had the same divisions ofthe ecliptic—12 parts or signs of Zodiac to divide ayear into 12 months with the sun moving through the successive signs during successive months. Brennandhad also said, "Another division of the ecliptic wasinto 28 parts to form the extent of the same number ofconstellations or asterisms—spaces to allow to make a daily round in its monthly course round the heavens.These are called Nacshatras in the Indian astronomydesignated as Sieu in the Chinese. It was the diligentuse which the Hindu astronomers made of these Nacshatras, in the progress of their astronomy, thatgave them the superiority were all other ancientnations."

With the discovery of several bronze articles fromMohenjo-daro, it is believed that the West learnt metallurgy and steel-making from India, which usedbronze in its most intricate form not later than theIndus Valley civilisation. Bronze axe-adaze, very fineand about 10 inches long with a hole through the middle of the head, capable of holding a handle, isthe first socketed implement to be found inMohenjo-daro. A bronze figure of a dancing girl is avery fine example of the Indus Valley civilisation.Pear-shaped furnaces were also unearthed at Mohenjo-daro. Traces of a kiln, measuring 4 ft, 8metres in diameter and a rough column in the centre,which probably suggested a roof, was also found here.

The author says that India was about a millennium earlier than China in the use of iron, i.e. 1400 BC.The iron pillar in Delhi supports this theory ofadvanced technology in ancient India. According toSayyed Ahmed Khan, an Indian historian, the pillar, 8 metres tall and weighing 7 tonnes and hundred per centpure, was made by Raja Mahadev in 896 BC. A maximumtemperature of 1527°C is required to melt pure iron.Undesirable elements like corrosion must be removed and the process of doing so is so difficult that it isdoubtful if modern science is capable of it. Yet theIndians knew it 2,000 years ago. There is no otherexample of such an iron column in the world.

India knew about steel as told by Ctesias who has said that swords made of Indian steel were presented toAlexander by Malli and Oxadracae in 325 BC. "Indiansteel had such a dazzling brightness that it reflectedan image clearly as a looking glass." Even Colonel Yule quoted Ramusio stating that "Ondanique orHumdwaniy, i.e. Indian steel was of superior value andexcellence. In the days of yore, a man who possessed amirror or swords of Ondanique regarded it as he would have some precious jewel."

Even in surgery India was ahead of other nations.Rigveda mentions the use of an artificial limb as asubstitute for a limb accidentally lost. TheMahabharata mentions that when Parikshit, the king of the Kurus, became certain of his approaching death bysnake-bite due to a curse uttered by a sage, he triedto protect himself by the constant attendance of anumber of physicians, who were well-supplied with antidotes. The Hindus also believed that the surgeon'sknife was not always necessary and suggested the useof poultices, cauteries and other externalapplications. Sushruta, the surgeon, had remarked that "of all cutting instruments and their substitutescaustics (or vegetable alkalis) are the mostimportant, because by means of them, deep andsuperficial incisions and scarfications may be made,and derangement of the three humours (air, bile and phlegm) may be rectified", adding that "with regard tosurgical treatment, actual cautery is said to besuperior to caustics, inasmuch as diseases treatedwith actual cautery do not reappear, and because it can cure diseases which are incurable by medicines,instruments and caustics."

The author then goes on to explain how Europe learntmedicine from India, as also the rocket and missiletechnology, the concept of uran khatola or aeroplanes, textiles, shipbuilding, etc. He concludes by sayingthat today the Western world finds itself at thecrossroads and is desperately looking for a newphilosophy "to get rid of the ecological crisis whichthreatens man's existence on earth." He suggests that Nature must be treated as a person and "to acquiresuch a capacity, we must have a recourse to Indianphilosophy which terms such a 'commodity' culture ormaterialism as something demonic." He suggests that since the world community has come to be dominated bythe struggle for economic power, "instead of commonexistence, power has become supreme". What power meansis conquest and "all conquest is destructive".